dugfromthearth

to be clear
go to your published arc and click on it - you will see more buttons than play - including edit

click edit - edit and then republish

do not unpublish your arc

unfixed AE is not balanced, just like unfixed merit rewards were unbalanced

exploit early - the exploits are fixed eventually

Fleshing Out Enemy Bases in MA

The hero enters a warehouse to fight some Hellions. Without reading the intro text, can the player tell if the hero is stopping a Hellion robbery at a warehouse or if he found their headquarters? As a tip, the Hellions probably have not set their own headquarters on fire.

This guide offers advice on what you can add on any map to make a mission feel like an enemy headquarters. It assumes you will not use every detail suggested, but will choose a few and tailor them to your arc and to your villain group.

What Are the Villains Doing?
Villains in their headquarters probably are not all standing around waiting for trouble, although some should be. We are not talking realism – when enemies stand around 20 feet from where their friends are being attacked, this is about flavor and what can be done.

In functional terms, villains are doing their animation. That means to have the villains doing non-standard things you need to set up spawns where you control their animation. The easiest is to do a Defeat a Boss, select an lt or a minion as the boss, and you can choose the animation for the boss and the rest of the spawn (for custom critters the animation for the boss does not work). Defendable and destructible objects also work well for this.

- Mass Animations
These animations you can set many spawns to be doing as just general flavor.

Training – are the enemies physically or mentally skilled?
- Book Research – reading a book
- Floating Books – reading books magically floating in the air
- Training Hand to Hand – practicing punches and kicks
- Training Jumping Jacks – doing jumping jacks
- If you can set the boss to their own animation try setting the boss to Drill Instructor if the rest of the spawn is training

Resting – they need so sleep or just hang out sometime
- Bum Slump – sitting or lying down, a mix of the two
- Unconcious – lying down
- Crate (Sit) – sitting on a crate
- Being Repaird – standing bent over at waist, robot resting
- Vampire (Standing) – standing stiffly with arms crossed, robot or mystic resting

Eating – Almost everyone needs to eat
- Eat (Donut) – holding donut, occasionally taking a bite
- Eat (Hamburger) – holding a hamburger, occasionally taking a bite
- Drinker (Clay Mug) – holding a cup and occasionally taking a sip
- Drinker (Coffee) - holding a cup and occasionally taking a sip
- Teabag – holding a tea cup and dipping a teabag into it (very proper)

Working – Doing chores around the base
- Carrying Crate – holding a crate
- Carrying Pipe – holding a pipe
- Bodybag – holding a bodybag
- Bookie – writing on a notepad and looking around
- Clipboard – just writing in notepad
- Reading blueprint – reading a blueprint
- Welding (low or medium) – welding, but there is nothing in front of you
- Tech Scanner – scanning with a device

Killing Time – Just hanging out
- Warm Hands – blowing on hands
- Waiting – tapping foot
- Walkie Talkie – holding a walkie talkie
- Reading (newspaper) – holding and reading newspaper, choose Paragon or Rogue Isles
- Dancing - dancing
- Zombie drumming – drumming (nothing zombie about it)

What Are the Villains Saying?
People generally talk at least some, and what they say tells us about them and what they are doing. As a basic rule you can’t have too many spots with dialog – if they only say it when you interact with them. Too many spawns broadcasting dialog when you enter the mission looks bad. And too much dialog within a spawn is a problem – if 4 dialog balloons go up at once the player can’t read them all (unless they check back in their chat window). It is better to have more spawns with short dialog, then fewer spawns with longer dialog.

- Arc Flavor Dialog
This dialog references the plot of the arc and reinforces the overall story. A few references to the arc in a mission add to the flavor, too many make it seem contrived. And the references cannot be detailed explanations (the big boss can do this of course), just bits of the plot.
“Once we rob that bank we won’t need to live in this dump”
“Everyone is afraid of us now that Big Bad joined us”
“I can’t believe we are going to the moon”

- Villain Group Flavor Dialog
This dialog adds flavor to the villain group. Tech groups talk about tech, magic groups talk about magic, etc. This is a good chance to add flavor and be funny. You can add flavor with them talking about almost anything.
TV Shows – Warriors watch Survivor, Skulls watch Bones, Vahzilok watch House, etc
Movies – Freaks like Terminator, Hellions like Reign of Fire, Nemesis like Metropolis
Songs – the villains can sing a bit of a song’s lyrics, 5th Column “Du hast me’
Food – trolls like steak, Malta like French food, Crey are vegetarian (or eat protein bars)

- Base Flavor Group
This dialog reinforces that this is the villains’ base. Again, don’t do too much of this, but a few references add flavor.
“I can’t believe we have to stay in this dump”
“At least our new base has a T1 connection”
“Living in an office is dumb, but they ley lines converged here”

How Do the Villains Decorate
Everybody wants stuff and villains are no different. Tech groups need tech stuff, robbers need crates of stolen goods, magic groups need scroll racks, religious groups need altars. Items are added through clickies, destructible objects, and defendable objects. Clickies have no enemies and thus no dialog, the other two can have dialog.

- Tech
Barrels, Crates, Refrigerator, Forklift, Machines

- Magic
Bookcase, cauldrons

- Important Notes
A whiteboard or tablet clickie can have important clues or flavor if the hero takes the time to read them. This can be an oblique clue – the formula for napalm, or as explicit as “step 1: steal underwear”. Treat this as an easter egg – a reward for the player if the hero clicks on it.

- Computer discussion
A defendable computer. The enemies stand around talking about some data on the computer. When the hero finds it, more enemies rush to secure the data.

- Altar worship
A destructible altar. The enemies are bowing before it and praying. The hero can defeat them and destroy the altar.

Guards
The villains will have some guards. Having them stand in place until the hero comes to them is a bit unrealistic. Making the villains react or be proactive adds a touch of realism and variety.

- Patrols
Simple patrol objective. The villains aren’t intelligent but at least they are mobile. Patrols should have only one line of dialog unless the two interact (question and answer). Best dialog is a simple “Keep an eye out” or “Don’t let anyone sneak past” – makes it clear they are guards, and isn’t odd if there are 4 patrols saying the same thing.

- Lookouts
Lookouts are defeat boss objectives with attached ambushes. When the boss is at ¾ health they call out and the ambush is triggered.

- Alarms
Alarms are when the villains respond to something being touched. This can be a click object objective with a triggered ambush, or a defendable object with a built in ambush. In addition to adding variety to the mission, they emphasize the importance of the item. Defendable items are best for very important items – if it is really that important the villains will have guards around it and more on call.



Gambling
Have only one of these in a mission. A defeat boss objective. The boss is animated as Three Card Monty – moving cups on table – have spawn do greedy (hunched forward rubbing hands in greedy fashion)

this site has the unique maps
http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Missio...ct_Unique_Maps

I have to admit mission 1 and 2 were a repeat
mission 1 stop him from kidnapping people
mission 2: he didn't kidnap enough, stop him from kidnapping more

Mission 2 was the mercy hospital map which I loved. After numerous complaints (and complaints about the mission 3 map) I moved mission 3 to the mercy hospital map and cut my arc to 4 missions.

It is better this way. At least if I got all the edits so it makes sense now.

Grim Riddles has the main villain appear in the first mission and escape - you encounter him again in the last mission.

The middle 3 missions are riddles - so it is a very unusual arc.

But it does a great job of making you see, then hate the main villain and itch for a shot at him in the final mission.

AE makes 50's more viable

with AE content you can play at 50 forever with new content. If you like having all of the powers, IO'd out, etc - AE now makes an actual end game.

Design an arc for what you want. Story, challenge, whatever.

Just make sure you list in the description what type it is.

There is a site - I don't have a link - that lists mission arcs and includes numbers of EBs and AVs to find or avoid

I myself have 3 missions in a row that are rescue hostages. I need to delete the 2nd mission - which is a straight repeat of the first on a different map. I just can't bring myself to do it. But cutting my arc to 4 missions would make it tighter and give me space in the file for adding clues and some extra descriptions.

It is bad when you fall in love with the details and not the overall arc.

A guide to writing story based arcs

Non-technical, focusing on what elements to add and what is important. General advice.

Guide To Making A Great Story Mission Arc
These are rules to making a great story arc. They are hard to follow – I do not follow all of them in my arc, and I have the complaints to show for it. You can see these as rules, guidelines, or a challenge to violate while making a great arc. The choice is yours, the arc is yours.

Rule #1
The end result that comes out on a player’s screen is what matters, not the effort you put in, not the ideas you had. You have to do what is possible in MA. A great idea that does not work in practice makes a bad arc. If you have great ideas that the technology does not support, note it for later when the tech improves.

Rule #2
A great arc is great in every way. Arcs have many elements – plot, intro text, mobs, maps, objectives. Being a great arc means being great in every way, not just doing one element well and having the rest be average. What makes player arcs potentially better than dev arcs is the time you can spend to attend to every detail.

Rule #3
Make your arc what it is supposed to be. It is tempting to always have 5 missions, or to have large maps. It is tempting to make everything as big and complicated as it can be – which is fine if that’s what your arc is supposed to be. But the best arcs are edited down to the essentials – missions are not longer than needed to tell the story, important elements are not hidden by clutter, exotic maps are not used where they do not make sense.

Contact and Mission Intro
Your contact sets the tone of the arc, being the first thing the player sees and as they frame the arc. Your contact needs to have a personality and they need to impart information based on that personality. Mission intros should not be a wall of text written that just presents the mission. It should be written like a person speaking – including pauses, side comments, etc.

The goals of the contact and mission intro are: to tell the player what to expect in the mission, to set the tone for the mission and arc, to make the player want to play the mission and continue the arc. If a player wants to complete the mission just to see what the contact has to say – than you have a great contact.

Mission Spawns
A minimum of 5 spawns in a mission should be custom spawns, and if there are more than 10 total spawns, half should be custom spawns. Now a custom spawn just means that it is not a standard spawn of the base enemy group standing doing their default emote. Custom spawns can have dialog, have movement, do appropriate animation, add appropriate items, or add required objectives.

- Dialog Spawns
A dialog spawn is intended to add flavor to a mission by saying dialog. This can be done through a boss spawn, a patrol, or other types. Dialog can be used to reinforce the villain plot “Once we finish robbing this bank we can buy bigger guns”, promote the main villain “If any heroes show up, Big Bad will take care of them”, or make the mission seem more real “I can’t find one of the secretaries, I think she is hiding”.

With dialog a lot is good, but in small doses. Do not fill every dialog box a spawn can have. Keep it to the essential dialog you want them to read.

- Animation Spawns
You can usually set special spawns to do animations of your choosing. This can reinforce the feeling of a mission. If you are raiding a villain base maybe they are sitting around, listening to music, training, etc. If you are stopping a villain assault maybe they are carrying explosives or doing an aggressive animation. Animations are very effective at adding flavor to a mission without adding dialog that might clutter the screen.

- Object Spawns
Object spawns can be defendable objects, destructible objects, or clickies. Defendable and destructible objects let you have mobs around the object which can talk about it. Object spawns let you customize your maps a little with flavor items. Altars give a mystic feel to a warehouse, weapon racks give it a military feel. Put a set of medical equipment in a sewer and it looks Vahzilok are working on building more minions in their base, instead of just another sewer you walk through.

- Movement Spawns
Standard spawns stand still or move around a little. If you want enemies to show some effort, movement spawns make the mission more dynamic: patrols, ambushes, and defendable objects.

Mission Objectives

- Clear Objectives
Players must understand what they need to do for a mission objective – the task listed in the nav must be clear. “Look for clues” is not clear, nor is “investigate”. “Search computer”, “Defeat Big Bad” are clear. Players will quit missions if they cannot figure out how to complete them.

- Rotate Objectives
Rotate mission objectives. Ideally no two missions in a row have the same objective, and three missions in a row should not have the same objective. Even if the map, enemies, plot, etc are different – 3 defeat boss, or 3 rescue NPC’s in a row feel repetitive. Mission 1, 3, and 5 can have the same objective, just have 2 and 4 be different.

- Do Not Make All Required
It is great to add flavor objectives, do not make them all required. If you are raiding an enemy base is the goal to defeat the boss or to get information from the computer? Choose one and make that the required objective. Rarely should both be required. It is common to tack on a “defeat boss” when it is not really needed. The named boss can be there – the player can choose whether or not to go after them. Do not try to force the player to examine and explore every detail you created. Think of them as easter eggs – more fun for players who do find them.

- Do Not Use Defeat All
Players who are not farming hate defeat alls. No matter how well intentioned, you end up having to find one last minion hiding behind a crate. What’s worse is it makes the ending anti-climactic. If a player spends 15 minutes loving your mission and 5 minutes hating it while they hunt for one last mission – they end the mission hating it. You are a brilliant person who can find a reason why you need to have a defeat all objective – use that brilliance instead to figure out reasons why you do not need a defeat all objective.

Plot: Beginning, Middle, End

- The Beginning Must Be Worthy
If you are sending a superhero on a mission – the intro better explain why it is a mission worthy of a superhero. Starting small with “investigate a warehouse” is lame. Players want to feel important, not like they have to prove their worth to every contact or that they are the night watchman.

- Tell the Player the Plot Upfront
Do not string the player along with just enough info for each mission. That makes it seem random and made up on the spot. Tell the player what the plot is – but feel free to change it. “First you must find out Big Bad’s plot from his minions, than you must stop his plot, then you must defeat Big Bad.” This tells the player there is a story, it gives the early missions a purpose in the overall arc instead of just being filler.

- Do Not Repeat a Mission
If the purpose of mission 1 is to destroy a mind control device, do not have mission 2 be to destroy another mind control device (same with finding out information, preventing a kidnapping, etc). Repeating the same purpose in another mission feels like filler, even with a cool map. Maybe another hero or the police took out the other devices. Or maybe there was only one (you are writing the arc, you make it fit your needs). The plot needs to develop – that’s how a story works.

- Resolution
You want a climax to your arc, but you really need a resolution. That means tying up the main storyline and any sub-plots. It also means having an ending that leaves the player feeling good. Making the player hate your villain is great if they get to beat them up at the end. Making the player hate your contact is fine if they get to beat them up at the end (or somehow turn the tables on them). The player needs to end your arc feeling satisfied.

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[I prefer Robert Louis Stevenson and Arthur Conan Doyle myself.]

[Edit: Forgot Jules Verne.]

Excellent examples. All authors that are admired and left unread by the general public. It's great to name names. But they are not books that the modern public reads and enjoys. There are certainly a minority that do enjoy them.

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You do realize that books aren't the only story-telling method now days? Ever heard of movies? Including those made for T.V.?


Sci-Fi channel did a version of 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. A Christam Carol is played every Holiday Season. PBS has a Mystery Series that includes Sherlock Holmes. They run these things because people are still interested in the stories.


The term "Classic" refers to stories that somehow transcend the time and place they were written. They touch on some fundamental aspect of human nature that doesn't change, which makes the main theme of the story pertinent even in modern times.

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So you are agreeing with me.

People don't read Jules Verne. The idea is kept but redone in a different form with new technology, new dialog, and probably even a revamped story.

Thank you for providing a great example of what I have been saying.

to be fair - you don't normally encounter crey much if at all before 30

do hollows, faultline, striga, and croatoa and you don't encounter any crey by 30

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I really can't even see how you can have a good story and boring missions. Missions are pretty much the same. There are certainly ways you can make a mission a grind, but about all you can do to spruce it up from a normal CoH mission is to add the novelty of custom foes.


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so you have that misconception. That's the point.

People will discover this is not the case - and hopefully the devs will improve the tools to make it even better.

Prevent 30 firbolgs from escaping, defend the reactor from waves of foes, these are very different missions from the normal move through a map and defeat each spawn in sequence.

Ambushes, patrols, defendable objects change the dynamics of a mission.

enemies that talk, npc's that interact - these change the feel of being in a mission.

A mission should not be 19 standard spawns standing their silently pounding their fists, then 1 boss spawn who talks. When people realize that and what they can really do with a mission - then we will start seeing much better missions.

I want to recommend Bricked Electronics Arc ID: 2180

I'll try to find it

drinking vikings with no reward

I'm sure it can be done - I want to see what someone did with it. I'm not really saying "I want to see an empty map".

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Aren't we lucky that we've evolved past the amateur story-telling fumblings of Dickens and Twain.

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[I prefer Robert Louis Stevenson and Arthur Conan Doyle myself.]

[Edit: Forgot Jules Verne.]

Excellent examples. All authors that are admired and left unread by the general public. It's great to name names. But they are not books that the modern public reads and enjoys. There are certainly a minority that do enjoy them.

[Ok, imagine World Wide Red told in five missions, using only the maps that arc uses. (And without the giant robots, because NOOOO, they can't just limit them to outdoor maps, we can't have them at all.)

Now image the RWZ storyline told in five missions, with all those "cool new maps" it has. (Which we've all seen a zillion times unlocking the Midnight Club.)

Which is the better story?]

You have 2 problems here.

One, you are comparing a bad story to a good story. Bad
stories are bad stories - I've already said that.

Two, you are fixated on stories. I have a bookshelf full of stories. If you want to read a good story - find a book. A major failing of current arcs is the story fixation. Plots are clever, contacts are nice, text is great - and the missions are boring. Because the author thinks that this is Mission Texpad not Mission Architect.

As soon as you all cancel your CoX accounts and spend your days reading Dickens, Twain, and Jules Verne - then I will believe you that a good story is timeless and all that truly matters.

zombies are in banished pantheon - that's all

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What makes the older dev-created content "worse" than the newer stuff is an over-reliance on time-sinks like defeat-alls, street hunts and fed-exes. Take those away, and some of the older arcs, like World Wide Red, A Path Into Darkness, and the Hess task force (ok, I admit I'm biased toward anything that has a giant robot in it) blows most of the newer, flashier content out of the water.

So yeah. A good story is a good story no matter what shiny new toys we have to play with.

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I agree that they have some good stories - but the missions tend still to be dull, and the maps (not the Hess giant robot map).

Faultline has maps where you go into buildings, interiors on a slant. There are the maps were you start in a building, go into a tunnel, then into a rikti area.

Good storytelling is good. But good storytelling with good maps, creative objectives, and fun detail is far better.

Star Wars is the same basic story as many, many others. It's not the story alone that made star wars a hit (and conversely, special effects couldn't save a lot of bad star wars knock offs)

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I played an arc, can't remember the title, where one of the missions did not contain a single enemy. There were a few allied boss spawns that said things as you walked by, and you clicked a blinky to complete.

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remember the name

that sounds like something I want to see

"Because good storytelling is timeless."

that's just not true.

read any 19th century classic - they are terrible to read now.
storytelling is a skill and style which develops over time.

in 6 months we hopefully will have 2 patches. But perhaps more importantly we will have 6 months of learning what can be done in MA.

Are our arcs now:
about as good as they will be in 6 months?
noticeably worse but not embarrassingly so?
embarrassingly bad?

I am guessing that today's arcs will look embarrassingly bad in 6 months. The best ones may just be noticeably worse.

But I suspect that we will come up with enough tricks and new features that 6 month old MA content will be like playing through the Striga arcs (not another kill all in a boat)

locking them at level 1 is an interesting idea - power gamers still have shivans and such - but for normal players it would enforce more story following.

if only you could ban temp powers so they couldn't still use jetpacks and such

apparently you select the text you want and right click on it, and it gives you a menu to change colors

I haven't tried it yet myself